Preparation of gadolinium chloride without using corrosive gases

Shibata, Hiroki ; Hayashi, Hirokazu ; Minato, Kazuo 

For application to the preparation of MA chlorides with high-purity, a preparation method, in which corrosive gas like chlorine or hydrogen chloride and so on was not used, of the chloride from the oxide was developed. The preparation conditions of this method were optimized by carrying out preliminary examinations in which gadolinium was used as surrogate for MA. An anhydrous complex chloride ((NH)GdCl) was obtained by heating an HCl solution dissolving gadolinium sesquioxide (GdO) and ammonium chloride (NHCl) under a nitrogen gas flow. An anhydrous GdCl with high-purity was obtained by heating (NH)GdCl at 350 degrees under a dynamic vacuum.